Data Retention Policy
How long AskBiz retains different types of data — account data, business data, conversation history, logs — and what happens to your data when you cancel.
Retention periods by data type
AskBiz retains different data types for different periods:
| Data type | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Business data (orders, revenue, customers) | Duration of subscription + 30 days post-cancellation |
| Conversation history | 30 days (Free), 12 months (Growth), 24 months (Business) |
| Account profile data | Duration of subscription + 30 days |
| Payment records | 7 years (legal requirement for financial records) |
| Security and access logs | 12 months |
| Marketing communications preferences | Until withdrawn or account deleted |
| Anonymised usage analytics | Up to 5 years (aggregate, non-personal) |
Payment records are retained for 7 years to comply with UK financial record-keeping requirements — this is a legal obligation that persists even after account deletion.
What happens when you cancel
When you cancel your AskBiz subscription:
1. Your account remains accessible until the end of your paid period (you are not cut off immediately)
2. At the end of the paid period, your account is downgraded or closed depending on whether you downgrade to Free or cancel entirely
3. If you cancel entirely: your data is retained for 30 days — allowing you to resubscribe and recover your account without losing history
4. After 30 days: your business data, conversation history, and account data are permanently deleted from AskBiz's primary systems
5. Encrypted backups: may contain your data for up to an additional 30 days while backup cycles complete. These backups are encrypted and not accessible for use.
6. Payment records: retained for 7 years as described above, but stored separately and cannot be used to reconstruct your account
Backup retention
AskBiz maintains encrypted, automated backups of its database for disaster recovery. These backups rotate on a 30-day cycle — meaning old backups are overwritten every 30 days.
If you delete your account and request erasure, your data is immediately removed from live systems. It will persist in encrypted backups for up to 30 days until those backup slices rotate. During this period, the backup data is not accessible for any business purpose — it exists solely as a disaster recovery mechanism.
This is standard practice for cloud services and is compliant with GDPR, which recognises the need for backup systems.